Sometimes you start on a bike that along the way gets bigger and bigger ending up as a totallyoverambitious project. We did start such a project over a year ago, a small capacity racingbike, that we just could not finish due to lack of funds. Carbon fibre this, Chromoly that, 3000euro here, 2000 euro there, we wanted the lot. Stoner once said to Rossi: “Your ambitionoutweighs your talent”. In our case the ambition outweighed the wallet.

Back to square one. What to do when you have a Super Cub frame laying around, a tuned andflowed 22 bhp 150cc engine, racing tires, rims and other bits and bobs? Turn it into a ‘non’run of the mill city sled! The inspiration ranged from pre war JAP speedway bikes to postNazi NSUs. Add a touch of Bonneville salt and a sip of Bergringrennen beer and there yougo…

We started off with chopping up the frame, the fabrication of the ducktail and welding atube between the headstock and the fuel tank. This tube now functions a 250ml reserve fueltank. Most time was spent on the prep of the frame. Three full days of grinding, sanding andpriming. The frame was sent off to the painter, and swinging arm and rims to the powdercoater. Beforehand we knew it was going to be a waiting game since we got a really good dealfor both the painting and the coating. It’s ready when it is ready so to speak.

But still we had lots to do: the nitty-gritty stuff. Brackets, brake cables, clutch cables, throttlecables all the little parts that had to be made to measure. Lots of work for things people willreally not notice. Next up was a military spec wiring loom. Never knew how much time youcan spend on such a vital part. It’s either right or wrong. No in betweens. In some lost hourswe made a custom seat pan out of glass fibre, got some race foam which we shaped with anangle grinder and with some gaffer tape we made a pattern for the leather upholstery. Andthen off to the 88 year old grandma to stitch the leather pieces together. Grandma loves doingseat upholstery. She‘s done dozens over the years and she is good at it.

When we got all the parts back after a few weeks the assembly was pretty straight forward.Within a day the whole bike was together. The last and most vital part was still missing.The exhaust. And we definitely wanted a JAP style pipe on it. And this had to be made fromscratch!

A company called Shipping Tools in Zaandam, basically an Amsterdam suburb, quoted 50Euros for one and 70 for 2 exhausts. Good deal...but let’s wait and see. After many hours offitting, adjusting and tinkering the exhaust was ready. And beautiful it was. We paid 50 for itbut the offer for a second one was withdrawn. Quite understandably so, because the guy didspend some serious hours on it. A second would now cost us 150 euro. Which I think isstill a bargain for a hand made stainless steel exhaust. I strongly recommend them if you needsome tubing bend or welded in the Amsterdam area. Their TIG welding is spot on…

In November the bike will be send off to Milan (Italy) and will be shown during the EICMAshow at Officina Mermaid, the Italian distributor of our Super 120s.

If you want to see it in the flesh and running you might bump into us next year at theBonneville Speedweek. We are planning to do a few runs on the salt flats. We might evenchallenge the class record. You’ll never know…